Csl Week 21

Result of the Friday September 28, 2007 CSL game between Toronto Croatia and London City played at The Hershey Centre in Mississauga at 8:30pm.

14 min…Croatia Boris Tomac GOAL…Tomac touches ball while on right to TC Mario Pupic who pushes ball back to him when he cuts across to center and Tomac shoots 8 yarder under diving goalie Tommy Bianchi in center of net.

22 min…Croatia Hayden Fitzwilliams GOAL…Fitzwilliams given pass from center and his 12 yard low shot from left is under goalie to right side of net.

26 min…Croatia Tomislav Ples GOAL…TC Hayden Fitzwilliams rush on left wing and rolls cross to TC Halburto Harris on right wing who rushes to end line and his low cross finds charging Ples who knocks ball into short right corner of net from 3 yards.

35 min…Croatia Tomislav Ples GOAL…Ples gets cross from left and his 6 yard shot is under goalie. The ball slips loose and Ples taps it in from 3 yards into open net.

38 min…Croatia Tihomir Maletic GOAL…Maletic gets ball on right and holds off defender. He rounds goalie and holds…holds…holds ball until at 6 yards running along edge of box and boots ball into left corner of net around goalie and three defenders.

41 min…Croatia Mario Pupic GOAL…Pupic is tapped freekick at 22 yards on left to avoid City defenders wall and he blasts shot into top right corner of net.

63 min…Croatia Boris Tomac GOAL…Tomac given short pass on run up middle and his 12 yard shot is into top middle of net.

74 min…Croatia Tomislav Ples GOAL…TC Boris Tomac gets pass on right and rolls pass to Ples who blasts 12 yard shot into middle of net over sprawling goalie.

77 min…City RED card…Alex Ponce is given a direct ejection. Boris Tomac was badly hurt on a tackle from behind at City’s 30 yard line on the right. The fans were expecting City’s Dennis Peeters to be punished as I thought he was the one who made the tackle. Maybe Ponce said something to the referee or the pushing match between the two teams after the tackle. Tomac didn’t return to the game but Croatia didn’t bother making a substitute so the teams just played ten on ten.

Final Score:………Toronto Croatia…….8……………London City………..0……….

Attendance was about 80 on this cool evening with a quite a strong breeze blowing.

Roy Blanche and Marko Zuljak shared the shutout for Croatia. Blanche had a few 40 yard shots to catch and some rushes to clear through balls. Zuljak came in the second half and had no saves to make. At 68 minutes, a defender even got back to poke the ball away from City Marco Peeters at 12 yards before he could get away a shot. Tommy Bianchi had a tough night but the score would have been doubled if he hadn’t made some spectacular saves. The first half was like one long hockey power play with all the action in the City half of the field. The second half was a bit more even in midfield play but that was possibly because the City played more close checking and drew many yellow cards and free kicks against them for their rough play.

Tommy Ples doesn’t often get to be a starter but made the most of this opportunity with three goals tonight. Halburto Harris was allowed to play right wing tonight rather than strictly defence and he was given the freedom to make longer runs up the wing. He sent in some great crosses as did Hayden Fitzwilliams (who only played the first half) on the other wing. In the second half he got away some shots but they were off target including one late in the game over the net and the back fence.

City looked brutal in this game. Their last few games they’ve been losing by some lopsided games so I wanted to see what was wrong in person. They did bring at least three subs so it wasn’t that they got tired out. I thought they would have only six players during warm up but more players turned up with the referee’s generous interpretation of game time delaying it by 15 minutes. It’s a two hour drive from London. This cut into their preparation and isn’t good when they are the last place team already.

Toronto Croatia made up ground on Serbian White Eagles who were losing to Trois-Rivieres Attak 4-2 on a game that started half hour earlier at nearby Centennial Stadium. It makes their next game on Tuesday even more important as they play the White Eagles and could pass them in the standings.

Rocket Robin
robing@eol.ca

Result of the Sunday September 30th, 2007 CSL game between Canadian Lions and Windsor Border Stars played at Birchmount Stadium in Scarborough at 6:00pm.

62 min…Lions Milos Vlicinic charges to through ball on left and trips over diving goalie Anthony Santilli at 16 yards on left as ball rolls wide left of net. Referee Justin Tasev signals for a Penalty kick.

63 min…Lions Jamaal Smith GOAL…Smith’s Penalty kick is low to left corner of net too far for diving goalie.

74 min…Lions Jamaal Smith GOAL…Smith gets pass at 15 yards on left and bends blast inside right corner of net beyond flying goalie.

82 min…Lions Darryl Gomez GOAL…Lions Milos Vlicinic crosses from left that has Gomez blast partially cleared ball from 12 yards into center of net.

83 min…Border Stars RED card…Milan Marsic as the last defender back earns a direct ejection for pulling down charging Milos Vlicinic just before he runs into the WBS box.

Final Score:……….Canadian Lions…….3…………Windsor Border Stars……….0………

Attendance was about 40 on this warm evening.

The game didn’t start until 6:32pm as they were waiting for the visiting team to show up. I was panicking and ready to drive off to the 7:00pm game across town. The Border Stars got here and skipped they introductions, national anthems and shortened the intermission and ended at 8:10pm. Border Stars brought only eleven players and with no substitutes tired in the second half. About half of the players I’d only seen once or never before. Missed most of all were forwards Aaron Byrd, Woreth Sampson, and Radek Papiez and owner/midfielder Jeff Hodgson. The last time they came to Toronto I saw them play at North York and they lost then also with only eleven players.

I only counted one 25 yard and one 45 yard shot by Border Stars the whole game. Matthew Willis earned the shutout for this light workout with a few rushes to clear or grab through balls.

Lions were missing their leading scorer Evan Milward who was called up by the MLS Toronto FC to play in their reserves game this weekend in Washington DC. This is the third MLS Reserves game in a row for him. If he had have been here today he may have been able to break open faster if he’d been there because speed is his extra edge. Ryan Reese and Milos Vlicinic tried to pick up the slack by taking most of the corners and free kicks and each playing opposite wings trying to fire crosses into the box. This practice for the first 45 minutes of the game paid off for Vlicinic in the second half. Much of the game seemed like a hockey power play similar to Friday’s Toronto Croatia vs. London City.

Lions could take advantage of the league’s seven substitutes rule by bringing in fresh legs in the second half. Jamaal Smith was brought in at 53 minutes and made an impact within two minutes and later scored their first two goals. He came to fame last year by being the only play chosen from among over 1000 players that tried out for MLS Toronto FC positions during the Christmas weekend. He played tonight like he wants another chance with them.

Tonight’s game clinches a playoff spot for the Lions as a Wildcard team. They will be seeded seventh because there are three great teams ahead of them in the International Division and three teams from the National Division will be seeded ahead of them. Without that system they’d be sixth.

Rocket Robin
robing@eol.ca

And over at Esther Shiner stadium the North York Astros were able to steal away what was spposed to b e an easy 3pts against a strong Trois Rivieres squad that had just come off an impressive 4-2 away win against the Lions 2 days ago.

My reports aren't as deailed and finely tuned as RR but to give you the low-down, the referee's in this match were atrocious at best-Not the CSL's strongest point.
The Astros were awarded a penalty call it hat should not have been just under 3 minutes into the match. Marco Picione calmly shot it down the middle to give the Astros the quick lead.

in the 23rd Selvin Lammie put tapped in NY's 2nd and everyone in the stadium was shocked that NY were up 2-0 against such a league title favourite. But just before halftime Nic Lasage, who scored arguably the goal of th year aganst Serbia on Friday, put TR back in the game with another great goal. It was a lacklustre 1st half and was at times very boring though 3 goals never hurt the entertainment dept.

The 2nd half was tremendous as the game went back and forth right to the very end. TR, as expected, tied the game up at 2 a piece when Darko Kolic buried one hard into the bottom corner. TR had been pressing hard with many a long ball into the box only for their strikers to miss the target on nearly everyone of them

Brian Carbajal scored the game winner in the 78th after a few shots went off the bar and a few TR defenders and Carbajal was in the right place at the right time to complete the shoick upset 3-2.

TR pressed hard for the remainder of the half and should have tied it up but just could not put enough juice into their headers as about 3 of them just trickled the post. North York looks like they re going into the playoffs as Windsor lost to the Lions. Windsor now have to play London this Tuesday to keep the pressure on the Supra who are in 9th spot.

Actually on Friday night the Attak beat Serbian White Eagles 4-2 who were leading the International division. I expect those teams could well be in the final at the end of the month which now is committed to podcast history as I'm the star/only guest of the Canuck Report...yikes the whole 43 minutes of me talking about the CSL.

http://canuckreport.podcastspot.com/episodes/76134E

This post has been edited by Rocket Robin on Oct 1 2007, 06:54 PM

that is correct the serbs were the ones that lost. Where were you for that game? we were looking for you but presume you attended the Croatia match

My pick for the final

Croatia vs Trois Rivieres